Dictators in Germany & Italy - 1930's
During the rise of fascism in Europe, there were men who took control over their countries. Those men were Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, taking charge over Germany and Italy respectively.
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was born in Austria on April 20 1889, and grew up to become one of the most infamous militaristic leaders the world had ever seen. He had lived through World War I, and wrote a book known as "Mein Kampf" or "My Struggle." This book was an autobiography and it addressed his ideals for a "perfect" Germany, through expressing his antisemitism with Jews and other minorities in Europe, he also had garnered much hatred towards the rest of Europe for giving Germany its downfall after the first World War. Hitler became the leader of the Nationalist Socialist Party, "Nazis" and was appointed chancellor of Germany by Paul Von Hindenburg in 1933 to create a more stable government in Germany. He took control over Germany by eliminating his political opponents, and began to address the issues in his book. In February of 1933, Hitler met with German military leaders to give Germany more space, he called this "Lebansraum" or "living room" to take over the East, this was his primary foreign policy. After the meeting, Hitler began to increase the army up to 600,000 men which was in direct violation to the Treaty of Versailles. In 1937, Hitler created an axis pact with Benito Mussolini, dictator of Italy. He had invited England as well but England had declined to join him. Later Japan joined in alliance with Hitler and this created the triple axis powers, creating a tough adversary for the US and its allies. The Holocaust was carried out by Hitler and his Nazi army to eliminate or banish all Jews and minorities from Germany and Europe. It began on Kristallnacht or "Night of Broken Glass" and all Jewish buildings and homes had their glass shattered by Hitler's men, and thus began the Holocaust. From this rise of power, the US had made it their goal to neutralize Hitler, and liberate Germany and other European countries from Hitler's control.
Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini was born in Italy on July 29, 1883. He was a successful politician and was a believer in fascism, for he believed that it would solve Italy of the problems that it was suffering at the time after World War I. He became the Prime Minister of Italy in 1922, and was often called Il Duce by the people. He began ruling with a powerful hand, and he became a fascist dictator. He raised an army, and began relations with fellow dictator, Adolf Hitler. The people feared Mussolini, for there was almost no freedom left in the country. In his foreign policy he stated that he wanted to make Italy a proud and great country to be feared. Italy quickly became a nationalist based country, and in 1937, Italy became an axis power with Germany and the two countries and their leaders began to take control over the rest of Europe and together waged war against Europe. The United States of America had now made it their goal to take out Hitler and Mussolini from power to stop the fighting and to allow the people of Europe their freedom again.